looks like a cake walk to me. especially with winds E at 30. Gotta love those 2 breakwaters, too.
glad you are still around to tell the tale, toy boxer! t. eff > -------------- Original message -------------- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > We intended to make the trip straight though but had some serious problems > at 4 am one night and had to put into the ICW at St. Lucie. 1 hint don't > ever try to sail through that inlet, particularly at night. One of the > guys on board assured us he had sailed through the inlet. We got there > and couldn't find any lights, but had to go for it (engine was sputtering > in 30 knots and we had blown out the #3 that we were sailing under about a > half hour earlier). There were no charts on the channel (1st hint) > > We drew 8' and when we got in there we found breaking waves (meaning no > water/shoal) were being knocked down because the keel was deeper than the > water, but the waves would pick us up just enough to bump along. We got > through the channel somehow and found about 9' of water again by bumping > along until we were floating, dropped the anchor and decided to wait for > sunrise to reassess the situation. > > Called the CG to find what our best course of action/course may be from > here. Their response was "You just sailed through WHERE? That inlet has > been shoaling up badly for years and is no longer navigable." > > So we knew we couldn't get back out that way (and at this point we were > going to fuel up). Fired up the computer to find some charts that showed > the channel (again showing it not navigable) and realized we were about > 100' from the ICW, problem was that there wasn't enough water between us > and the ICW to get us there. > > Another call to the CG told us that we were at high tide (and we only had > about a foot of water under the keel). So the 4 of us that weren't at the > helm all hiked out hard to starboard (even let the boom all the way out) > to induce some heal, fired up the engine and plowed our way through after > about 15 minutes. > > The ICW is shallow in spots so we had one person below on the computer > watching depth on the charts the whole 25 miles to the next inlet that we > could get through (Palm Beach) and telling the skipper what part of the > waterway was deep enough for us. We bumped a few times, but the only real > problem was trying to get through the Jupiter inlet. There is a shoal all > the way across the inlet except for one small passageway. We went back > and forth for 20 minutes and couldn't get through. Finally a tow boat US > boat was coming up the ICW and talked us through it. Basically told us to > go to port until he said to turn and then turn hard to starboard and point > right at his bow. We got through and were on our way. > > Honestly the trip down the waterway was nice. Some beautiful homes along > that stretch but with the shoaling and the bridges (oh, did I mention > there were probably a dozen bridges along this stretch that either open on > the hour and half hour or will open on demand but only once they have you > in sight) the trip was slow. So we went back outside the rest of the way > to Ft. Lauderdale. And it was a rough day. Basically 15-20 from the east > (right on the beam) we sailed with just the main for the next 7 or so > hours and stayed about 7-8 knots the whole way. > > Ft Lauderdale in early December at night is amazing by water. Some of the > Christmas displays easily cost as much as a decent C27. > > Chris D > toy box > eastport, md > > > > > > > See what's free at AOL.com.
